Thinking of getting one but not sure if it is worth it

[Gomezaddams51]

I am a disabled, retired AF 20 year Veteran. My first car was a 1949 Ford Coupe and I have loved Fords ever since. I presently own a 1999 Fully loaded Explorer and love it. It has almost 300K miles on it and still going strong. But I know it will probably go belly up one of these days. It seems like there is a big push for EV and I am reading everything I can about them. I need something that has a lot of carrying capacity like my Explorer. I love the size and love the power of the 302. I do a lot of long distance trips and about half the time I pull a trailer.
The problem I have with EV's is the low mileage per charge and the long recharge times. I do not want to add days to my trips just because I have to wait for the battery to recharge. Right now, I drive 200 miles, spend 15 minutes to fill up the tank and I am back on the road again. I travel through mountains and the 302 provides plenty of power to go up the mountains without having to putt along in the trucker lane. I have read that it takes 50 plus hours to recharge an average EV battery. I cannot spend time like that sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for the damn thing to recharge just to go another 200 miles and spend another 50+ hours.. I live in the desert (Nevada) and drive through desert in pretty much all directions so I need A/C and to be able to drive 65 when pulling a trailer or 70 when just driving. For the price of a new EV, I am leery because if I put the same amount into my 1999 I would have basically a new car without the long charging. Yes gas is expensive but so is $30+K for a vehicle that is inferior.
Oh and I forgot, trying to find a place to plug the dang thing in is another problem I really don't want. So what are your experiences with long trips and an EV pulling a trailer. As they say, change my mind. I need actual information not propaganda... And yes I am serious about looking at all options, gas and electric.

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[Colorado87]

I am a disabled, retired AF 20 year Veteran. My first car was a 1949 Ford Coupe and I have loved Fords ever since. I presently own a 1999 Fully loaded Explorer and love it. It has almost 300K miles on it and still going strong. But I know it will probably go belly up one of these days. It seems like there is a big push for EV and I am reading everything I can about them. I need something that has a lot of carrying capacity like my Explorer. I love the size and love the power of the 302. I do a lot of long distance trips and about half the time I pull a trailer.
The problem I have with EV's is the low mileage per charge and the long recharge times. I do not want to add days to my trips just because I have to wait for the battery to recharge. Right now, I drive 200 miles, spend 15 minutes to fill up the tank and I am back on the road again. I travel through mountains and the 302 provides plenty of power to go up the mountains without having to putt along in the trucker lane. I have read that it takes 50 plus hours to recharge an average EV battery. I cannot spend time like that sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for the damn thing to recharge just to go another 200 miles and spend another 50+ hours.. I live in the desert (Nevada) and drive through desert in pretty much all directions so I need A/C and to be able to drive 65 when pulling a trailer or 70 when just driving. For the price of a new EV, I am leery because if I put the same amount into my 1999 I would have basically a new car without the long charging. Yes gas is expensive but so is $30+K for a vehicle that is inferior.
Oh and I forgot, trying to find a place to plug the dang thing in is another problem I really don't want. So what are your experiences with long trips and an EV pulling a trailer. As they say, change my mind. I need actual information not propaganda... And yes I am serious about looking at all options, gas and electric.

Unless you have an early reservation already for the Lightning or another EV truck it will likely be a few years before you can get one, and between now and then maybe the performance will be more to your liking.

With that said, all the forthcoming ones promise way way faster charging than 50 hours! ?

 

[MickeyAO]

I am a disabled, retired AF 20 year Veteran. My first car was a 1949 Ford Coupe and I have loved Fords ever since. I presently own a 1999 Fully loaded Explorer and love it. It has almost 300K miles on it and still going strong. But I know it will probably go belly up one of these days. It seems like there is a big push for EV and I am reading everything I can about them. I need something that has a lot of carrying capacity like my Explorer. I love the size and love the power of the 302. I do a lot of long distance trips and about half the time I pull a trailer.
The problem I have with EV's is the low mileage per charge and the long recharge times. I do not want to add days to my trips just because I have to wait for the battery to recharge. Right now, I drive 200 miles, spend 15 minutes to fill up the tank and I am back on the road again. I travel through mountains and the 302 provides plenty of power to go up the mountains without having to putt along in the trucker lane. I have read that it takes 50 plus hours to recharge an average EV battery. I cannot spend time like that sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for the damn thing to recharge just to go another 200 miles and spend another 50+ hours.. I live in the desert (Nevada) and drive through desert in pretty much all directions so I need A/C and to be able to drive 65 when pulling a trailer or 70 when just driving. For the price of a new EV, I am leery because if I put the same amount into my 1999 I would have basically a new car without the long charging. Yes gas is expensive but so is $30+K for a vehicle that is inferior.
Oh and I forgot, trying to find a place to plug the dang thing in is another problem I really don't want. So what are your experiences with long trips and an EV pulling a trailer. As they say, change my mind. I need actual information not propaganda... And yes I am serious about looking at all options, gas and electric.

An EV is not right for everyone, and it sounds like they are not right for you...yet! Just wait a little while longer.
BTW, retired 22 year AF vet here.

 

[sotek2345]

Towing range will be a challenge (just like your explorer uses more gas when towing). That said, fast charging is available on most routes on major highways and will let you recharge the battery in about 40 minutes. A little longer than your 15 minutes now, but not too bad. You make up for that by charging at home and never having to take time to visit a gas station to fill up in day to day driving.

 

[F150ROD]

You won’t be charging for days and it’s possible you will be charging for those same 15 min, although it’ll be more often than gassing up.

There are calculators out these that will break down the cost of any EV vs ICE. Sometimes it’s not worth it going EV.

 

[RickLightning]

@Gomezaddams51, as others have stated, many of your beliefs aren't correct, but clearly an EV isn't for you, at least yet.

An EV will add HOURS to your long distance trips. You can play on a website like A Better Route Planner and see that. Figure 20 to 30%. It really depends on the range of your vehicle, coupled with how many miles you drive in a day, and whether your nightly destination includes a charger or not, because that eliminates one stop and MAY get you to 100% charge by morning. And it should be noted that many Level 2 chargers, which are the ones at hotels, aren't likely to replenish the Lightning overnight. My Mach-E wasn't charged between 8:30PM and 7AM at one hotel we stayed at because it was only putting out just under 5kW. My home charger does close to 12kW.

Because you tow, TODAY, an EV would be a big mistake. Why? Because the vast majority of chargers are not designed for pull through, so you can't charge a truck towing a trailer. While you MIGHT be able to use an extension cord at a hotel, you can't do that with DC fast charging. And, as others have noted, towing will cut your range by close to half just like it does with the Explorer.

As has been said, it does NOT take 50 hours to charge an EV when on a trip. The Lightning will charge from 15% to 80% in under 45 minutes at a DC fast charger. Note - when the below chart was made, Ford dramatically slowed charging on the Mach-E at 80%, which is why that chart shows 80%. They now have adjusted the dramatic slowdown to 90%, but from 80 to 90% is still half or less than below 80%.

For EVs to work for frequent towing, they need to:

- increase range
- decrease charging time
- provide pull through charging

Until that happens, anyone buying the Lightning for towing is not going to be happy.

And, remember, that during the winter, range is cut dramatically...

One of the big challenges today with social media (forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is the amount of incorrect information on them. Wherever you read that it takes 50 hours is either incorrect information, or you took it out of context. For example, while I can fully charge my Mach-E overnight with my 240v charger, if I used 110v it takes days and days. I drove it to my son's house and used 110v to charge it up over close to 4 days (but that was fine, because it sat parked).

The chart below is missing info in my opinion, because the charging "speed" is show in amps, until you get to the DC fast charger, which is shown in KW. The 3 other chargers are AC chargers, whereas the EA charger is a DC charger, and it is bypassing the built-in inverter (charger) in the truck, and supplying power right to the battery. https://evsafecharge.com/dc-fast-charging-explained/

One of the things to keep in mind is that the EV charging infrastructure is in the process of growing. Last year $7.5B in a bill was committed over the next 5 years. You won't see "let's put a lot of charging infrastructure into campgrounds" on that list though. So, if you get off a highway, you'll need to charge up, then drive to a campground, and then likely rely on the plug they have there to charge, which is the far left column showing 19 hours. Of course if you use the F-150 to also power your camper, that charging will take longer than 19 hours. But of course you really only need enough charge to make it back to the high speed charger.

Also to consider is charging limits. While you can charge your battery to 100%, it's not recommended, except when departing for a trip. However, when you use high speed charging, charging to more than 90% of your battery (formerly 80%) is discouraged. So you leave your house with 100% of your battery, and then charge up on the road to 80% (because going from 80 to 90 is much slower and you're impatient). That means you don't have 20% of your range. And, just like you don't tow with your Explorer until your tank is empty, you won't tow with your EV until it's empty - which is why the chart shows 15%. So going from 15% to 80% and back again is using... 65% of your battery. So, if the truck has 300 miles of range, that's really 195 miles of effective range between stops on the highway. Now, if you assume towing takes a 40% hit, that's 117 miles between stops (195 x .6). So you can drive for 2 hours, charge for 45 minutes, ... Assuming you can pull through the charger which is an issue as I said.

New charging technology that the F-150 doesn't yet have allows 800 volts instead of 400 volts. Or they can make the truck take a 400 volt charger on each side, allowing for twice the capability. Or the new tech they are working on to cool the charger and its cord to speed things up...

In short, 5 years from now the world will look much different for EVs. Until then, you need to stick with a gas powered tow vehicle.

 

[metroshot]

OP, you are not ready (at this time) for the EV world yet based on what you expect it to do.

I would suggest you look at the new F150 PB or diesel F250 for your towing needs.

 

[EaglesPDX]

An EV is not right for everyone, and it sounds like they are not right for you

Second that. BUT you could make it work if want to cut your greenhouse gas emissions and have the time. All the towing and travel will take longer.

Drove from PDX to SLX last weekend. An 11 hour ICE drive was an 18 hour overnighter in the Tesla. I'm OK with that because my goal is zero emissions.

Same will be true on F150EV towing to the coast (100 miles) in summer. The need for frequent charging stops increases the time it takes to do things.

But if one is retired, has the time, it's about the journey. Air is cleaner, stars are brighter, water is cleaner (I fish a LOT) so I like driving my EV even if long trips take longer.

Short trips go way faster...a least if you're into your second childhood with a car that does a 4.2 zero to sixty (F150 EV is 4.5) never drove over 100 in car before. With the Tesla I look down and...yikes...over 100...again.

Run it past the grandkids and see what they say.

 

[RickLightning]

Second that. BUT you could make it work if want to cut your greenhouse gas emissions and have the time. All the towing and travel will take longer.

Drove from PDX to SLX last weekend. An 11 hour ICE drive was an 18 hour overnighter in the Tesla. I'm OK with that because my goal is zero emissions.

Same will be true on F150EV towing to the coast (100 miles) in summer. The need for frequent charging stops increases the time it takes to do things.

But if one is retired, has the time, it's about the journey. Air is cleaner, stars are brighter, water is cleaner (I fish a LOT) so I like driving my EV even if long trips take longer.

Short trips go way faster...a least if you're into your second childhood with a car that does a 4.2 zero to sixty (F150 EV is 4.5) never drove over 100 in car before. With the Tesla I look down and...yikes...over 100...again.

Run it past the grandkids and see what they say.

I've heard that perspective before, then we took 2 trips. Michigan to Florida and back via South Carolina, and Michigan to Massachusetts and back. Both 2 day trips.

The problem with your analysis is that it's with a Tesla. Tesla's charging network is much more extensive than non-Tesla. And the charging is much more problematic - EA's charging network has issues. Sure, in the next few years that will get better, but right now it creates a lot of challenges in having a smooth trip. Then add winter...

We did Michigan to Florida for the holidays, and took the F-150 because cutting the range meant that two long days of driving became too much, and I'm not willing to do 3 days of driving each way to spend a week with the grandkids. Of course that differs if you're driving and sightseeing or camping along the way, and have no schedule.

 

[EaglesPDX]

Tesla's charging network is much more extensive than non-Tesla. And the charging is much more problematic

I have CCS1 and Chademo adapters and I use EA and EVgo a lot. I have found them as reliable as Tesla and by the end of 2021 almost twice as many in Metro PDX as Tesla chargers.

 

[RickLightning]

That's not the case in the middle of the country, down to Florida, I can tell you.

One example - EA in Gainesville, FL. https://www.plugshare.com/location/192956

We've driven nearly 5,000 highway miles, from Michigan to Florida and then to Massachusetts, and probably 25% of the locations had issues, some so bad (like Gainesville that we skipped them).

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